 “Fall is my favorite time of year.” I have heard that phrase dozens of times in the past few weeks. I have said it myself even more times than that. It’s true for me. I love fall! I love the weather, the freshness of the air, and the cool night temperatures. Unlike spring, which may have the same weather, the brownness of winter mingles with the landscape as new growth begins. Fall paints a glorious canvas with the beauty of summer as the background while the joyous fireworks of color explode in the foreground. Life is apparent in every brush stroke that fall paints. After a season of heat and wearing lightweight clothes to keep cool, I love the transition to the softness of sweatshirts on my skin — the coziness of sweaters and the bundling inside a quilt or crocheted blanket. I love the colors of fall that we use to adorn not just our bodies, but our homes. Decorating with a palette of yellows, oranges, coppers, rusty browns, and earthy greens brings the vibes of nature into our spaces and beautifies and fall-ifies our lives. And the food! I delight in making huge pots of soup that simmer throughout the day. Warm bread and holding a hot mug of pumpkin spice anything in my hand is my definition of contentment. The time of harvest brings a homey, nesting feeling to my heart. Last weekend I made salsa from the huge bowl of tomatoes that grew in my tiny garden. The chopping, simmering, and smells blended with the feeling of fall as my homemade salsa and chips became the halftime treat for the Sunday football game. I can’t think of one thing I don’t like about Fall. Who would not love the opening act for the holiday season? Fall is the precursor to Thanksgiving which rolls out the red carpet leading us to the season of Christmas. Sometimes I wonder if it is because I arrived in this life on a brisk October day. Maybe it was ingrained in me to love the season that I was born into. Maybe the first breaths I took were of the crisp air of fall which created a craving for more. It is also not lost on me that I believe I am in the fall of my life. Not winter yet, but the fall of my life. The time of realization that winter will come soon enough so now is the time of slowing. The time of noticing the smells and listening to the sounds of life. The time of intently enjoying and loving. Whatever the reason, I’ll say it again…I love fall! ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Pennie’s Life Lesson: Slow down and enjoy the pleasures of fall. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ YOUR TURN...
Share your thoughts and experiences relating to this post in a comment below. And please feel free to email me at: [email protected]. Thank you! ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ All Rights Reserved Copyright © 2013-2024 Pennie Hunt This was written and produced by Pennie Hunt. Feel free to forward and share this post. Please keep the entire message intact, including contact, logo, and copyright information. #CornerofSpiritandBrave #LoveYourLifeNoMatterWhat #JourneyThrough #PennieHunt #IAmGoodEnough #grief #Love #Joy #HowToBeHappy #Happincess
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 When my children were young, I worked at an elementary school library. After a class of students came in and checked out books, I would quickly begin shelving the books they returned. I was never finished before the next class arrived. The process of returning books, checking out books, and reshelving books was a never-ending cycle. On the weekends I would do laundry for my family of five. The mountains of clothes, sheets, and towels would fill the hallway as the washer and dryer chugged away. The laundry was never done. The cycle of clothes being currently worn, the mountains of color divided piles, and the clean folded laundry was a never-ending cycle. Laundry is never completely done. If you watch the stockers in a grocery store, they continually cut open boxes to replenish everything from cake mixes to toilet paper on the store shelves. They are followed by shoppers who reach for the items and leave holes in the neatly stocked shelves. The grocery aisles are a never-ending push and pull of products. Tonight, the sun will set, and in the morning, it will rise. The feel of fall is replacing summer, and soon, the colorful leaves of fall will be covered by winter snow. The tides of the oceans rotate between high and low. History is a story of war and peace, destruction and rebuilding, planting and harvesting, health and pain, laughter and tears. You can stand at the window of the hospital nursery welcoming the bundles of pink and blue, while at the same time someone in the hospital is saying goodbye to a loved one. Life itself is a cycle. I cannot think of anything in life that isn’t on a continual cycle of repeated change. We humans want to believe that we can get ahead of the cycle. That we can control it. That we can come to a space of completion. That we can get the laundry done, the books shelved, the grocery isles stocked and somehow we can stop aging. We beat ourselves up with self-criticism when we are not successful. We convince ourselves that we aren’t doing it right and aren’t good enough if we can’t complete the job. We try to move faster, think harder, and be stronger, just to keep up. The truth is it isn’t possible. We will never get ahead of the cycles of life. The laundry will never be done- but we can all have clean clothes at some point in the cycle. We must learn to be okay with that. And now as I write the last words of this column and send it off to be printed, I may for a short minute believe that I am done. I may believe that my work is completed. But tomorrow morning I will think about my next column. I will sit at my computer and begin typing. And the cycle will begin again. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Pennie’s Life Lesson: Life is a series of cycles. The perpetual movement of change will begin again and again. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ YOUR TURN...
Share your thoughts and experiences relating to this post in a comment below. And please feel free to email me at: [email protected]. Thank you! ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ All Rights Reserved Copyright © 2013-2024 Pennie Hunt This was written and produced by Pennie Hunt. Feel free to forward and share this post. Please keep the entire message intact, including contact, logo, and copyright information. #CornerofSpiritandBrave #LoveYourLifeNoMatterWhat #JourneyThrough #PennieHunt #IAmGoodEnough #grief #Love #Joy #HowToBeHappy #Happincess  It was time for its yearly check-up and oil change. I had done this every year for almost 17 years. After the check-up, I would wash it, vacuum it, and park it back in the garage. It was a precious possession filled with memories of my son. After leaving it at the car shop, I stood in my garage looking at the empty space and I held my breath. I suddenly realized that for all these years as long as the truck was in my garage somewhere in my heart I thought my son would come back to drive it. That is why I kept it. The last time I saw my son, we were at a gas station, and I paid for his tank of gas. When I walked to my car I turned and looked at his smiling face as he sat in that truck waving goodbye to me. Every time I walked into the garage I could see him sitting in that truck waving goodbye. That is why I kept it. I cried just thinking about letting go of the truck, but it was time. I knew it would be painful. I knew I couldn’t handle prospective buyers coming to my home to look at it. I knew my heart would break if I saw a stranger driving it around town. I called my brother and asked if he would come and get it. I wanted him to take it to his community and sell it. I made it clear – I didn’t want to know any details. I didn’t want to know the price. I didn’t want to see a stranger drive it away. When my brother and sister-in-law arrived, I heard whispered conversations between my brother and my husband discussing a sale price and information about the truck. My husband cleaned it, detailed the inside, and polished it to look as close to new as a 1997 truck could. The night before my brother and his wife left, they posted the truck for sale on social media sites. Early the next morning offers were coming in. I took the truck for one last drive. I thought of all the times I had driven it in the past 17 years. I thought of the day I surprised my son with it and how he jumped up and down and danced around it. As I drove, I talked to him. I asked my son to get his uncle and this truck home safely. And I asked him to find the perfect person to buy the truck. I cried and talked to him and cried more. The truck was where I always talked to my son after he passed away. That is why I kept it. I stood in the driveway videoing my brother drive the truck away. My sister-in-law was in their car looking protective as she followed him. When I turned to see the empty space in the garage, I cried deeper than I had since the day my son passed. That empty space took up a lot of room in my heart. Halfway home, my brother called. He was sure the truck was already sold. An excited young man had called him and said he had a truck just like it when he was younger and sold it when he joined the military. He regretted that decision and wanted this truck. The man planned to meet my brother when he arrived home and would have the cash in hand to pay for the truck. A few hours later my brother called with the rest of the story. The young man showed up with the cash. When he saw the truck he jumped up and down and danced around it- just like my son had when I gave it to him. He kept saying it was destiny that he saw the ad for the truck that morning. My brother said, “Pennie, you tell me how these kinds of mysterious woo-woo things happen to you all the time, but now I am believing this one.” There were too many coincidences that happened for this not to be destiny. And when I saw a photo of the man who bought the truck, he looked a lot like my son. The new owner and I have had a few phone conversations. The first time he called the truck the “Green Machine” I reached for my heart. That is what my husband always called it. There was no accident that this man bought the truck- he was supposed to have it. The timing of my decision to sell it, my deep insistence that my brother take it, and the list of magical similarities between my son and this new owner could not have accidentally happened. I believe my son maneuvered all of it and found the perfect owner just like I asked him to. And my son knew the new owner would become a new friend. I believe I had to wait all these years to sell it for this to happen. That is why I kept it. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Pennie’s Life Lesson: Letting go is a process. Healing takes time. Love always remains. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~  YOUR TURN...
Share your thoughts and experiences relating to this post in a comment below. And please feel free to email me at: [email protected]. Thank you! ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ All Rights Reserved Copyright © 2013-2024 Pennie Hunt This was written and produced by Pennie Hunt. Feel free to forward and share this post. Please keep the entire message intact, including contact, logo, and copyright information. #CornerofSpiritandBrave #LoveYourLifeNoMatterWhat #JourneyThrough #PennieHunt #IAmGoodEnough #grief #Love #Joy #HowToBeHappy #Happincess  My son’s family gave me a bird feeder for Christmas. I couldn’t wait until spring to install it in my backyard. This wasn’t just a hang-it-in-the-tree bird feeder. It was faaannccyy! It had a camera that would activate with movement, snap photos, and record videos of the birds when they perched to eat the seed. These would then be sent to my phone. It had a solar panel that needed to be in the sun to recharge and power the camera. Because of the weight of the feeder, I needed a pole buried deep enough into the ground for stability and to ensure it would withstand the wind. It was the end of July when I finally got the bird feeder up and filled. And then I waited. And waited. My vision was the moment it was filled with food, the birds would flock to it. I thought, if you feed them they will come. It didn’t happen. I read articles that said I must have the wrong food. I purchased a more expensive kind. When I opened the bag, it smelled delicious and looked as good as trail mix for humans! I wanted to eat it myself! Surely this would do the trick. And then I waited. And waited. No birds. I began asking friends what I was doing wrong. One friend said, “It isn’t bird season. The birds come in the spring and fall to feeders.” I had never heard of this but began thinking she was right. Weeks passed. Then almost magically on Sept. 1st simultaneously with the arrival of pumpkin spice lattes, my phone buzzed with a notification- “A bird is coming!” There it was on live video - a bird was happily perched on the feeder chirping as she ate. A couple of hours later she returned with a partner and the two enjoyed bird conversations as they dined. I could barely control my excitement as I watched the video and listened to their sweet bird chatter. The next day the couple visited for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I named them Bonnie and Clyde because of their hit-and-run eating pattern. On day three they brought friends. All week there has been a nonstop parade of visitors. Bonnie and Clyde must have spread the word. I delighted in watching my phone for up-close viewing and then looking out my window and seeing them in the distance at the feeder. I now have an album on my phone dedicated to bird photos and videos. I am sure my family is becoming tired of my enthusiastic texts to share these exciting cinematic moments. It is probably why they reply with jokes about old people bird-watching and how they need to get a life. I always wondered why in the last years of my mom’s life she loved bird feeders and spent hours watching birds. I think I understand now. It causes you to sit and be patient. It creates a peaceful space to intently concentrate on nature. The sweet chirping and the sound of them cracking seeds creates a music that is only heard if you deeply listen. The grace with which the birds fly in and delicately wrap their claws around the perch to balance and eat and then glide away when they are done is hypnotizing. Waiting and watching is a meditation exercise. Being in the moment. Staying still. You must concentrate if you want to see them visit the feeder or in a blink, you will miss them. It is a sensation of calm as you wait and joy when they arrive. Maybe it is a joy that you understand with age. It isn’t that bird watchers need to get a life – maybe they have found life in the simplicity of nature. It is a happiness for me that was worth the wait. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Pennie’s Life Lesson: To find grace and simplicity- look at nature. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Bonnie and Clyde Video Below Turn up sound! YOUR TURN...
Share your thoughts and experiences relating to this post in a comment below. And please feel free to email me at: [email protected]. Thank you! ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ All Rights Reserved Copyright © 2013-2024 Pennie Hunt This was written and produced by Pennie Hunt. Feel free to forward and share this post. Please keep the entire message intact, including contact, logo, and copyright information. #CornerofSpiritandBrave #LoveYourLifeNoMatterWhat #JourneyThrough #PennieHunt #IAmGoodEnough #grief #Love #Joy #HowToBeHappy #Happincess |
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